Good morning,
I have just taken over the position of backup operator in my department, so please forgive any seemingly obvious questions. I have received several puzzling errors in the past few days, and hope I can get some answers as to what is causing them. First, this is the setup I am using:
We have a Dell PowerEdge 2950 as our backup server, using BackupExec 11d (Media Server version 11.0, Rev. 7170) - installed updates Service Pack 4, Hot Fixes 62, 63, 64, 65.
Our current configuration is to run a full backup of our main disk array/fileserver on Friday, at 11:00PM. Then, a differential backup will run on M, T, W, Th at 11:00PM. I first noticed a problem when I came in on Saturday and found the following error after the full backup job had 'finished':
Job ended: Saturday, August 01, 2009 at 12:28:00 PM
Completed status: Failed
Final error: 0xe00084ec - A tape read/write error has occurred. This is usually caused by dirty read/write heads in the tape drive. Clean the tape drive, and then try the job again. If the problem persists, try a different tape. You may also need to check for problems with cables, termination, or other hardware issues.
Final error category: Backup Media Errors
For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-34028
Backup- \192.168.0.152M: LRDCVOLStorage device "Drive 1" reported an error on a request to write data to media.
Error reported:
A tape read/write error has occurred. This is usually caused by dirty read/write heads in the tape drive. Clean the tape drive, and then try the job again. If the problem persists, try a different tape. You may also need to check for problems with cables, termination, or other hardware issues.
V-79-57344-34028 - A tape read/write error has occurred. This is usually caused by dirty read/write heads in the tape drive. Clean the tape drive, and then try the job again. If the problem persists, try a different tape. You may also need to check for problems with cables, termination, or other hardware issues.
Having seen this, I immediately ran the cleaning job. Normally we schedule a cleaning job once a month, and it was due to run in 6 more days anyway. I ran the cleaning job at 1:08PM on Saturday. When I arrived at work Monday morning, BackupExec told me that the cleaning job ran normally and completed. However, I found the following three errors in Windows Event Viewer on the backup server, in the Application log:
Error #1)
Date: 8/1/2009
Time: 1:16:58PM
Type: Warning
User: N/A
Computer: BackupServer
Source: Backup Exec
Category: Devices
Event ID: 33152
Adamm Mover Error: Unload Status Retry!
Error = ERROR_NOT_READY
Drive = "Drive 1"
{A2B872F4-4681-4D45-B6BB-4FDE132C962E}
Media = ""
{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Read Mode: SingleBlock(0), ScsiPass(0)
Write Mode: SingleBlock(1), ScsiPass(1)
Error #2)
Date: 8/1/2009
Time: 1:17:13PM
Type: Warning
User: N/A
Computer: BackupServer
Source: BackupExec
Category: Devices
Event ID: 33152
Adamm Mover Error: Unload Status Retry!
Error = ERROR_NOT_READY
Drive = "Drive 1"
{A2B872F4-4681-4D45-B6BB-4FDE132C962E}
Media = ""
{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Read Mode: SingleBlock(0), ScsiPass(0)
Write Mode: SingleBlock(1), ScsiPass(1)
Error #3)
Date: 8/1/2009
Time: 1:17:28PM
Type: Error
User: N/A
Computer: BackupServer
Source: BackupExec
Category: Devices
Event ID: 33152
Adamm Mover Error: Unload Status Failure!
Error = ERROR_NOT_READY
Drive = "Drive 1"
{A2B872F4-4681-4D45-B6BB-4FDE132C962E}
Media = ""
{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Read Mode: SingleBlock(0), ScsiPass(0)
Write Mode: SingleBlock(1), ScsiPass(1)
I ran a second cleaning job on the same autoloader, at 8:41 Monday morning. Three identical errors appeared again in Event Viewer. I have checked back through the event logs and it seems to happen consistently when the cleaning jobs run. By comparison, I have had successfull differential and full backups run (even one last night) and this error does not occur.
What exactly is behind this? Is there a particular issue I need to address? The tape should not be attempting to unload, as we have defined the last slot in the autoloader's magazine as a cleaning slot and the cleaning tape is left in there.
I have already posted on Symantec's forum and got nothing, they told me to call their pay support line (and that's not really an option right now.)

The pay support line will just tell you to replace all of the hardware until the problem is resolved. Which, didn’t resolve the problem.

What a POS.

I’m switching to Bacula. http://www.bacula.org/en/

(Replay from BW)

Update on this situation:

Over time, I’ve been monitoring this continued problem, and after repeatedly dealing with Quantum (the provider of both the autoloader and the tapes), it became clear finally that the tapes themselves were to blame. There were signs of internal damage (and this was on freshly purchased tapes.)

Quantum tried to tell me to go read their tape handling documentation, but I literally take these tapes out of their box and place them on a shelf. I don’t drop them or toss them about, so I have no concern that it is my tape handling that is at fault.

In addition, the problem seems to have tapered off as of mid-December. I am starting to think I encountered a run of bad factory tapes from Quantum, particularly as this would even happen with replacement tapes that Quantum *themselves* sent me as RMA replacements for bad tapes (irony at its finest.)

I’m trying off-brand tapes (Fujifilm at the moment) to see how they treat me. So far, my first use of them had no problems.

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